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New Music: Nick Jonas – Levels

As the unspoken leader of the Jonas Brothers, Nick Jonas attracted legions of young fans with his fizzy, Disney-approved pop songs. The New Jersey native wasn’t the group’s only frontman — he shared that role with his older brother, Joe — but he was certainly the main songwriter, drawing upon his experience as a childhood Broadway actor as well as his love of classic pop music for inspiration. A performer since the age of seven (the age at which he joined the Broadway cast of Annie Get Your Gun), Nicholas made his songwriting debut in 2002, when a holiday tune he’d co-written with his father found its way onto a Broadway Christmas album. A contract with Columbia Records followed two years later. Nicholas began prepping for his solo career by writing material with his older brothers, Kevin and Joseph, who eventually climbed aboard as permanent partners. Nick’s solo project thus blossomed into a full-fledged band, and the siblings aptly named themselves the Jonas Brothers.

It took several years for the Jonas Brothers to find an adoring audience. It’s About Time, the band’s 2006 debut, was a commercial flop, and Columbia Records dropped the group one year later. Signing with Hollywood Records in 2007, the band began attracting new fans — most of them young and female — by establishing a presence in the Disney world. They appeared on the network’s television shows, earned their own series, starred in a made-for-TV movie with Disney starlet Demi Lovato, and sold close to two million copies of their self-titled sophomore album. They replicated that feat one year later with A Little Bit Longer and returned in 2009 with Lines, Vines and Trying Times. All of the albums featured heavy contributions from Nick, who not only led the songwriting process but also played a wide variety of instruments, from drums to keyboard to guitar.

Taking a rare break from the band, Nick Jonas began working with several other musicians on a side project in late 2009. Members from Prince’s New Power Generation were recruited to join the lineup, including Michael Bland and Tommy Barbarella, and the group dubbed itself Nick Jonas & the Administration before making its debut in early 2010 with the album Who I Am. The record performed respectably, peaking at three on the U.S. charts on its way to sales of 151,000, but there were soon suggestions that Nick was planning to return to the Jonas Brothers fold. This didn’t happen. A 2013 tour was scrapped just prior to its October launch and, soon afterward, the band split. Nick Jonas regrouped with a 2014 solo tour followed by the November release of an eponymous album.